Manufacturing of free-form geometries using 5-axis Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machining brings challenges in path- and motion-planning as one typically wants to minimize the manufacturing time of the object under consideration, while keeping the machining error within fine machining tolerances that ranges in tens of microns. We propose an optimization-based pipeline that, for a given toroidal and/or cylindrical flat-end cutter, simultaneously optimizes its milling paths together with its local positioning represented by the rotation and tilt functions. The proposed strategy is validated on a variety of benchmark surfaces, with different hyperparameters for the objective function and initial conditions, showing that our results provide high-quality approximations of free-form geometries using by-construction non-colliding motions of the given tool. • Optimize toolpaths, rotation, and tilt together for 5-axis toroidal/flat tools. • Evolution-based framework (CMA-ES) for the multiobjective optimization problem. • Optimizes path distribution to improve accuracy and reduce overall length. • Validated on various benchmarks, including industrial free-form geometries.

We propose a computational framework for motion planning for 5-axis CNC machining of free-form surfaces. Given a reference surface, a set of contact paths on it, and a shape of a toroidal cutting tool as input, the proposed algorithm designs the tool motions that are by construction locally and globally collision-free, and offers a trade-off between approximation quality and tool wear using an optimization-based framework. The proposed algorithm first quickly constructs 2D time-tilt configuration spaces along each contact path, detecting regions that are collision-free. The configuration spaces are then merged into a single time-tilt configuration space to find a global tilt function to control the overall motion of the tool. An initial collision-free tilt function in B-spline form is first estimated and then optimized to minimize the machining error while distributing the tool wear as uniformly as possible along the entire cutting edge of the tool while staying in the collision-free region. Our algorithm is validated on both synthetic free-form surfaces and industrial benchmarks, showing that one can considerably reduce the tool wear without degrading the machining accuracy.